Current Population Survey,
September 1997: Veteran's Supplement

ATTACHMENT 3
Overview

General

In September 1997, the Census Bureau conducted a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) on veterans. Refer to Attachment 2 for an overview of the CPS.

The sponsors of the Veteran's Supplement were the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), formerly the Veterans Administration, and the Department of Labor. It is a biennial supplement that was previously administered on the CPS in April 1985, November 1987, September 1989, September 1991, September 1993, and August 1995. Overall response to the supplement was 98.9 percent for this collection.

Data Collection

Attachment 9 is a facsimile of the September 1997 questionnaire. The computer instrument contains the CPS basic labor force items and the supplement items. Interviews were conducted from September 14-20 in the full CPS sample.

All veterans aged 18 or older were asked the Veteran's Supplement Items S1-S13. Check items SCK1 and SCK2 were universe screens; Check item SCK2 was filled by the instrument based on entries from corresponding items (PUAFEVER and PUAFWHEN) on the CPS portion of the instrument. See Attachment 9, page 4 for a facsimile. This is the portion of the CPS instrument used to collect demographic information of household members.

Item S1 determined Vietnam theater status and was asked only of Vietnam veterans. Item SCK1a isolated veterans over 50 years of age who might possibly have served at the beginning of the Vietnam era as defined in Item S1a. Item S1a then determined whether the respondent actually did serve during this period. Check item SCK3 screened for Persian Gulf War veterans and Items S2 and S3 were asked to determine Persian Gulf War veteran status. Item S4 screened for disabled veterans and Items S5 through S10 were asked only of disabled veterans. All veterans, irrespective of disability status, were asked Items S11 through S13.

The Veteran's Supplement was self-response. Interviewers were instructed to make up to two personal or telephone callbacks before accepting a proxy interview.

Interviewer training for the supplement included authorization of up to 2 hours to review instructions, complete home-study exercises, and complete a practice interview. Copies of these instructions are not included in this documentation, but may be obtained upon request.

Data Processing

Supplement Computer Edits

Interviewed records were edited for consistency between items. When possible, missing values were assigned values based on entries in other items. Items S1 and S1a of the supplement, Vietnam theater status and Vietnam era status, were fully allocated from a hot deck. No other items from the supplement were allocated.

There were three conditions for nonresponse to the supplement items: supplement ineligible, item ineligible, and actual item nonresponse. Supplement fields were blanked for records that were out of universe for either the entire supplement or a particular item based on response to a previous item.

If an item should have been filled with an entry but was not, and could not be plugged based on entries in other items, the item was assigned a value of 9 or, if a two character field, 99.

In addition, Item S5 was edited and recoded into its own special field, PRS5, in positions (0827:0828).

Weighting

PWSSGWT for Labor Force Data

All adult records retain the "basic CPS weight," which reflects controlling for age, race, sex, and Hispanic origin estimates and individual state 16+ estimates. Use the basic CPS final weight (PWSSWGT) located in positions (0613:0622) for tallying just labor force items. For a description of this weight, see Attachment 2 "Overview of the CPS."

Special Supplement Weight

Use the veterans weight, PWVETWGT, located in positions (0623:0632), to tally any estimates from the Veteran's Supplement data whether or not basic labor force items were used.

September 1997 CPS/Veteran's Computer Use File

CPS Labor Force Data

The September 1997 CPS file contains 135,984 records. Each record contains 858 characters. Positions (0001:0814) contain the labor force data. Attachment 8 contains the variable name, character size, location on record, universe, and the values of these variables.

The variable PRPERTYP (located in positions 0161:0162) on the CPS Basic Items Record Layout determines the type of person as follows:

PRPERTYP

1 = Child household member (0-14 years old)
2 = Adult civilian household member (15+ years old)
3 = Adult Armed Forces household member (15+ years old)

The variable HRINTSTA (located in positions 0057:0058 on the CPS Basic Items Record Layout determines the interview status of the household:

HRINTSTA

1 = Interview

2 = Type A Noninterview (These records represent households that were eligible for the September 1997 CPS interview, but were not interviewed because no one was home, household members were temporarily absent, etc.)

3 = Type B Noninterview (These records represent sample addresses determined to be ineligible for the CPS by virtue of being vacant, demolished, nonresidential, etc.)

4 = Type C Noninterview (See explanation for Type B above.)

By combining the values of PRPERTYP (1-3) and HRINTSTA (2-4), the number of records can be determined.

Value Description Unweighted Counts
PRPERTYP
1 Child 27,976
2 Adult civilian, 15+ 95,313
3 Adult, Armed Forces 408
HRINTSTA
2 Type A Noninterview 3,106
3 Type B Noninterview 8,737
4 Type C Noninterview 444

September 1997 Veteran's Supplement Data.

The September 1997 supplement data for adults are in locations (0815:0858). (See Attachment 8)

Tallying the September 1997 Veteran's Supplement File.

The September 1997 supplement universe represented the full CPS sample comprised of all household members aged 18 years and older. Use the variable PWVETWGT in positions (0623:0632) for tallying these data.

Unweighted Counts.

Attachment 14 lists some of the unweighted supplement variables and their tallies. Use these counts to ensure that the file is being properly accessed.

Data Contact.

For questions concerning the collection of this data, please call the staff in the Current Population Survey Branch at the Census Bureau on (301) 457-3806. For questions concerning analysis of the Veteran's Supplement, please call the Division of Labor Force Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics on (202) 606-6378.

Table of Contents

Source: U.S. Census Bureau